Am I really allowed to take my camera in there? Sure!
Surprised as we were, as a member of the media corps on yesterday’s launch of the Evija Fittipaldi, the hugely knowledgeable @Guy Munday gave us a very comprehensive tour of the Emira production line. The biggest takeaway, having been visiting the factory for almost 20 years now is the huge, and I mean huge investment not only in technology but more importantly, quality. Production is now focussed on efficiency due to the volume increases but also on ensuring cars on the line are built as they are intended with a ‘no faults forward’ policy and machinery such as the optical scanners which, sat on a 3 ton granite block for consistent integrity, take hundreds of measurements of each car to ensure it’s been assembled as it should be to the hundredth of a mm before moving on. With more efficient sub-assembly now completed in the old Elise/Exige & Evora factory, components such as the front and rear subframes are assembled and completed before being attached to the chassis on the production line. It’s a very impressive move on from the more manual processes of the prior cars but with that said, while there are many machines to help with more precise tasks and heavy lifting, the process is still very much a manual one with each task getting 17 minutes to be completed before the automated AGV’s move the car on to the next stage in the process.
